Dubai Tourism to offer sponsorships to event organisers

Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) has launched a new sponsorship scheme for event organisers in the emirate, it announced on Monday.

The scheme will target entertainment events and will be applicable for events that are ticketed and open to the public, with an eligible leisure event permit, a statement said.

It will work in conjunction with the Department’s ticketing and permits services to streamline management and coordination of event licencing activities and provide greater operational efficiency.

The sponsorship scheme will take effect for events being held from May 1, 2019 through an online application process on the Dubai Tourism website.

Dubai is seeing a growth in the sector, and recorded an increase of over 100,000 ticket sales and 25 additional events in first quarter of 2019 when compared to the same period last year.

Several new event venues have also opened up across the city including Dubai Opera as well as the upcoming Coca-Cola Arena in City Walk 2, which is set to officially open its doors this summer.

The 17,000-seat air-conditioned arena will be the largest indoor arena of its kind in the region, and will host a variety of live concerts all year round, starting with comedian Russell Peters on June 6 and Maroon 5 on June 14.

Helal Saeed Almarri, director general, Dubai Tourism said: “The sponsorship scheme has been designed to act as a catalyst for the local events industry. This has been further fuelled by our cross-industry public and private sector partnerships, which serve as a crucial component in helping us identify and pursue opportunities to further empower local event organisers.”

Ahmed Al Khaja, CEO, Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishment, added: “Dubai’s events sector is continuing to grow at an impressive rate. The dedicated incentivisation scheme will aim to further position Dubai as a major player in the sector by providing additional support for event organisers across the city, and attracting prominent event organisers and international initiatives.”